The Career Ladder

Getting a job

When Paul left school he applied for (= wrote an official request for) a job in the accounts department of a local engineering company. They gave him a job as a trainee (= a very junior person in a company). He didn't earn very much but they gave him a lot of training (= organised help and advice with learning the job), and sent him on training courses.

Note: Training is an uncountable noun, so you cannot say 'a training'. You can only talk about training (in general), or a training course (if you want to refer to just one). Here you can use the verbs do or go on: I did/went on several training courses last year.

Moving up

Paul worked hard at the company and his prospects (= future possibilities in the job) looked good. After his first year he got a good pay rise (= more money), and after two years he was promoted (= given a higher position with more money and responsibility). After six years he was in charge of
(= responsible for/the boss of) the accounts department with five other employees (= workers in the company) under him ( = under his responsibility/ authority).

Leaving the company

By the time Paul was 30, however, he decided he wanted a fresh challenge (= a new exciting situation). He was keen to work abroad, so he resigned from his company (= officially told the company he was leaving his job; you can also say 'he quit the company') and started looking for a new job with a bigger company. After a couple of months he managed to find a job with an international company which involved (= included) a lot of foreign travel. He was very excited about the new job and at first he really enjoyed the travelling, but...

Hard times

After about six months, Paul started to dislike the constant moving around, and after a year he hated it; he hated living in hotels, and he never really made any friends in the new company. Unfortunately his work was not satisfactory either and finally he was sacked (= told to leave the company/ dismissed/given the sack) a year later.

After that, Paul found things much more difficult. He was unemployed (= out of work/without a job) for over a year. He had to sell his car and move out of his new house. Things were looking bad and in the end Paul had to accept a part-time job (= working only some or the day or some of the week) on a fruit and vegetable stall in a market.

Happier times

To his surprise, Paul loved the market. He made lots of friends and enjoyed working out in the open air. After two years, he took over (= took control of) the stall. Two years later he opened a second stall, and after ten years he had fifteen stalls. Last year Paul retired (= stopped working completely) at the age of 55, a very rich man.